The Office on Women's Health (OWH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a mission to provide leadership to promote health equity for women and girls through sex- and gender-specific approaches. The strategy OWH uses to achieve its mission and vision includes developing innovative programs and events.
The Office on Women's Health manages several events and programs that target communities most at risk of HIV. To note the work of women in the fight against HIV/AIDS, OWH is paying tribute to women leaders and champions (PDF, 290 KB) who support other women and girls. These courageous women have shown humility and service for more than 20 years.
A new report is now available for the June 2010 Bringing Gender Home: Implementing Gender-Responsive HIV/AIDS Programming for U.S. Women and Girls forum. OWH convened the forum in partnership with UNAIDS. Participants recommended strategies to make HIV/AIDS prevention programs more responsive to the needs of women and girls. UNAIDS sponsored international gender experts who presented lessons learned and internationally-developed models of gender-responsive programming that can be adapted for use in the U.S. The final recommendations were aligned with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy goals of reducing new HIV infections, increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV, and reducing HIV-related health disparities. Read the final report (PDF, 793 KB).
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day began on March 10, 2006 and has been observed each year since. Its goal is to raise awareness in all sectors of the U.S. of the increasing burden of HIV on women and girls in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, the observance provides an opportunity to discuss and explore the social context of women's lives and those risks and vulnerabilities which are gender specific to women and girls. Also, the observance is a tool to promote discussion, information sharing, and the opportunity to provide the facts on how to prevent infection as well as how to live with the disease. National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is patterned after other awareness observances.
For more information, visit the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day website.
Project officer: Aleisha Langhorne, M.P.H., M.H.S.A.
This initiative is a gender-specific prevention education project focused on HIV/AIDS, STDs, and juvenile delinquency for at-risk female adolescents ages 9 to 16 years. This project specifically focuses on the intersection between sexually risky and juvenile delinquent behavior among female adolescents. This project is evaluation intensive and focuses on building capacity within communities to service the needs of female adolescents that are at-risk of HIV, STDs, and juvenile delinquency. It identifies and addresses the social and economic threats which contribute to the participation of female adolescents in sexually risky and delinquent behavior. It also focuses on building self-esteem and educates girls on how to cope with adverse situations. All organizations address the mental health and well-being of their young participants and provide supplemental services to past program participants. The organizations providing services under this project title are:
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
This initiative supports gender-specific prevention education projects providing accurate and comprehensive information on HIV/AIDS prevention and healthy behaviors for women living in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
This initiative supports gender-specific prevention education projects targeting women living with HIV/AIDS. It increases access to care, improves knowledge of protective behaviors, and reduces isolation of women living with HIV.
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
This initiative supports gender-specific demonstration projects for HIV/AIDS continuum of care and prevention services for incarcerated and newly-released women disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
This is a gender-specific HIV prevention education project that integrates the strengths of traditions, values, culture, and spirituality indigenous to the targeted communities.
Project officer: Aleisha Langhorne, M.P.H., M.H.S.A.
This project expands the scope of the National HIV Testing Mobilization Campaign by engaging faith-based organizations (FBOs). The project targets female clergy, female spouses of pastors, and other female leaders within FBOs. The project focuses on capacity building within FBOs while implementing gender-responsive prevention education models for minority women and their families within a faith-based setting. HIV/AIDS prevention education is relevant to stigma and HIV/AIDS, heterosexual HIV/AIDS risk behavior, denial of HIV/AIDS risk, sexual and reproductive health education, communication and condom negotiation skills building, and healthy sexual relationship messages in the scope of holistic health and wellness. The organizations providing services under this project title are:
Project officer: Aleisha Langhorne, M.P.H., M.H.S.A.
Grantees will provide free information, training, technical assistance, and technology transfer to individuals, organizations, and communities. Their funds help organizations efficiently operate and increase their capacity to effectively deliver culturally competent, linguistically appropriate, and evidence-based interventions and core public health strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention. They implement gender-responsive strategies within their programs. Funded organizations also market, disseminate, and train participants using the HIV Prevention Gender Toolkit for US Women, set to be released in 2011.
Project officer: Mary Bowers, M.S.W.
The Straight Talk on Preventing HIV Program (multi-year for three years) develops gender and age-specific, culturally, and linguistically-appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention education to reach at-risk racial and ethnic minorities. The program works with African-American, Latina/Hispanic, and Native American females ages 12 – 18 and the female adults in their families. Mother, grandmothers, and other female members of the family (such as cousins and kinship network members) are taught how to demonstrate their love and support for their teenagers with healthy communication skills targeting physical heath, emotional health, and sexual health. With the use of behavioral health therapists, health educators, and art therapists, participants are given multiple outlets to recognize their at-risk behaviors, get tested for HIV, develop regular appointments with the behavior health therapist to receive counseling, and strategize how best to change at-risk behaviors. Through the demonstration of love and caring expressed through healthy communication skills about sexual health, teenagers use the support of other female family members as a catalyst to get tested for HIV and change their at-risk behaviors. Additionally, participants learn to include physician's visits as a regular part of their healthcare.
Project officer: Aleisha Langhorne, M.P.H., M.H.S.A.
The Office on Women's Health developed this project to reach young women between the ages of 13 and 24 years to provide accurate and comprehensive sexual health education and promote healthy behaviors to maintain holistic health. The funded organizations will move beyond social marketing campaigns and expand the capacity of their gender-specific services to provide and implement an HIV/STD component (implementing the social and economic realities of minority female adolescents and young adults). The organizations also belong to a larger network and have an established history of servicing young women between the ages of 13 and 24 years. The organizations providing services under this project title are:
Content last updated November 08, 2011.